If you can't beat the system... Try to change it...

So many try to beat the system. When what they need to do is try to change the system. Speaking their minds and making their voices heard. I am not shy about speaking my mind when it comes to things that affect my well-being as well as my emotional and mental stability. As an inmate; with a sentence of life with parole; who comes up for parole in less than five years, I face opposition at every turn when it comes to trying to be constructive.

Being incarcerated is hard, especially when you are stagnated by the very system that is supposed to rehabilitate you. It is discouraging when you try to develop or enhance your job skills but are hindered by antagonism from those who are in a position to assist you. The system that is put in place to aid you in becoming a productive citizen is oppressive to say the least. The harder you try to remain positive, the more despotic things become, creating despondency. You are black balled because you want to obtain beneficial knowledge to reconstruct your thought and behavior pattern. Those who strive to better themselves are ostracized because of their determination to acquire a means for a better way in life. Whereas, those who exhibit the same behavior that caused their incarceration are pacified to avoid contention.

Rehabilitation is supposed to be the goal for those incarcerated. However, when you don't have the support and the assistance needed, it cannot be achieved. To struggle against the opposition placed to hinder you causes you to lose the will to preserve. You are taken through an obstacle course of objectives, even when you meet the criteria, which cause apprehension. When you attempt to address the issues, you are scoffed at because of your ambition and treated arbitrarily, which results to anxiety and frustration.

The system in itself inflicts mental and emotional abuse on those who have already suffered from the same treatment in some form. So that leaves the question: How can the system rehabilitate when they are themselves a part of the problem?

By Maisha Mahalia
Unpublished work C 2012 Maisha Mahalia